ALL OUR Remembering strife of Brian
FORTY YEARS AGO MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN BRIEFLY JOINED ALMOST 100 OTHER FILMS ON KIRKLEES COUNCIL’S ‘STOP LIST’ OF FILMS DEEMED UNACCEPTABLE. LOOKS BACK AT THE WHOLE FURORE
IT was the cinematic cause celebre that swept the nation. In 1979 the Monty Python team unveiled Life of Brian, a jawcrackingly funny tale of a man mistaken for Jesus during the lifetime of Christ.
But not everyone saw the joke, and a tidal wave of protest that originated in the United States soon rolled into the UK with everyone from clean-up TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse to journalist Malcolm Muggeridge lining up to condemn the film as blasphemous.
In a notorious television confrontation with John Cleese and Michael Palin Muggeridge described it as ‘tenth-rate’ and called it ‘this squalid little number.’
Brian raised the hackles of councils across the UK. Several local authorities banned it under statutory powers, which meant they could - and still can - overrule the passing of the film by the-then British Board of Film Censors (BBFC). Kirklees Council was one of them. Released to cinemas on November 8, 1979, Brian, which carried an AA certificate, was summarily banned by Kirklees Council on November 26 before officers and councillors had even seen it.
It joined scores of troublesome films - said to be almost 100 titles on the council’s notorious “stop list.”
That meant it could not be shown in any cinemas in the borough. It was also banned in Glasgow and in parts of Wales.
Curiously Life of Brian wasn’t banned in Halifax or Bradford, which meant film buffs only had to hop on a bus to find out what all the fuss was about.
The 40th anniversary of the film’s suppression in Kirklees prompted questions over whether the stop list still exists, whether films have been added to it since - and whether they remain banned.
The 1970s was a febrile time for cinema and for censorship. A multitude of titles had fallen foul of national, regional and local censorship. They included The Devils, The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and a slew of continental “art” films that were less erotic than pornographic.
Among those taking a subversive approach to film exhibition in those faraway days was Stephen Dorrill, director of the Holmfirth Film Festival. Back then he was a student in Huddersfield and set up the Huddersfield Polytechnic Film Society in 1977. He recalls the Life of Brian scandal with amusement.
“I remember taking part in a demonstration against Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers’ and Listeners’
Association. She had a big meeting about all of this. We went along and caused a bit of disruption. She said, ‘Let’s talk to these young people’ and all I remember was that she kept spitting in my face.”
Mr Dorril, who later taught film at the University of Huddersfield, said his film society set out to screen films that had caused a stir such as Taxi Driver, Nazi brothel drama Salon Kitty and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
“Film societies in the 1970s, of which the student union was one, were set up deliberately to evade prosecution by local authorities.
“Huddersfield in the 1970s was very right-wing. Like a lot of councils they jumped on the bandwagon. If one right-wing council banned a film then others followed suit, often without seeing it. They didn’t know anything about film.
“We could show any film because it was a private film society. The council had no control over what was screened.
“We certainly showed a lot of films that they would ban like Andy Warhol films and other underground American films from the ‘60s and ‘70s, plus European films like WR: Mysteries of the Organism.
“I do remember that there was a watch committee and they were banning things, but that didn’t apply to us.” Veteran Tory Ken Sims, who served on Kirklees Council for 31 years from 1988, remembers what he called “the watchdog committee.”
“Any films that we thought were a bit dodgy we would go and watch and decide whether or not they should be shown.
“There was a panel of five. We used to talk over what category they were. It all used to come under licensing.” He recalls a private “club” cinema in Huddersfield “where all of the banned films were shown”.
He adds: “We used to vet them so that they didn’t go too far.
“The council has moved away from that as standards have altered and minds have broadened but I think that it would still have a responsibility.”
Another long-serving Kirklees councillor, the Lib Dems’ Kath Pinnock, said using statutory powers to block a film at local level was “patronising”. “The idea that the council has a right to protect morals is very outdated. We are not elected to protect that element of public life. It’s patronising.
“My view would be that if the national body has cleared a film for viewing then that should be the end of it. People can view it, stream it or go to a cinema in a neighbouring council area. The whole thing is foolish.”
She added: “When the Cabinet system was introduced in the late 1990s all these interfering committees were abolished.
“Maybe the process went with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they still exist but they haven’t been used.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate. People should have the right to choose what they watch.
“The BBFC does that so that people can make a decision based on the classification and that how it should be.”
Flashback to 1980 and the good burghers of Kirklees.
The 16 councillors who made up the Resources and Planning (general services) Sub-Committee rejected calls from Brian’s distributor to remove the stop but did concede that if a local operator was to ask and offer a screening then they would view it.
In February 1980, the committee agreed to a requested screening on April 14 at Huddersfield ABC on Market Street. Immediately after viewing the film the stop was removed.
Said Mr Dorril: “Censorship in any form is wrong and counter-productive. Life of Brian was very funny. It probably turned more people onto religion than the church ever did.
“You shouldn’t have censorship in the arts.
“People should be allowed to see anything they want. It’s their decision.”